A Clash of Realities
by Draknal
Summary: Elibe and Magvel, two different continents of Fire Emblem. What happens when events unfold that will forever change both lands?
1. Chapter 1

Draknal: Greetings one and all. This is my newest fic that I have been working extremely hard on for some time. I got the idea for this fic a while back, and it has been in production for about 2 months. I hope that you all enjoy the hard work that I have put into this fic.

Karla: Didn't you promise a few times now that you wouldn't take so long to make or update fics?

Guy: Yeah, what happened to that? Get lazy did we?

Draknal: -sigh- Yes, a bit. But it can't be helped now. Thanks to Gingy Mittens for keeping me on track! I'm fine now that this fic has been posted!

Guy: Can we get on with it now?

Karla: Yes, may we start?

Draknal: Disclaimer!

Raven: Draknal does not own Fire Emblem or its characters, just the things that he made up in this story and the plot.

Draknal: Role it!

* * *

**When Worlds Collide**

By: Draknal

The sun shone brightly over the trees. A lazy solo cloud drifted in the bright blue sky. Ah yes, it was just another normal day. People went about their business just as they had always done. Unbeknownst to them all, at that very moment, a battle for the fate of their world was taking place on the Island of Valor, inside a place ominously called the Dragon's Gate…

"Eliwood look out!" Hector yelled.

The red haired lord had not seen his opponent get behind him. Spinning around quickly, Eliwood tried to parry the attack with his mighty Sword of Sacred Fire, Durandal.

Unfortunately, the massive size of the weapon, which always helped him create an unstoppable attack and great defense, lacked in the speed he needed to block the counter attack. He felt a burning sting in his left arm.

'Damn, he's too fast for me to stop his every attack' he thought. He jumped back and landed on his knee. Pausing to catch his breath, he looked at his opponent.

Lloyd, the white wolf, or at least the morph version of him, readied for another attack with his silver sword. He turned and stared at the near exhausted Lord.

"Pity," was all he said before he lunged at him again.

* * *

On the other side of the battle, Eliwood's comrades were having just as difficult a time with their opponents. 

Priscilla, now a Valkyrie, was facing off against Ursula. She stared into the cold emotionless eyes of the morph and watched her raise her tome. It was one she had never seen before, but was sure that the effects were just as deadly as any other magic.

In response to this action she took out her own tome, an Elfire, and began reading the incantation. Both attacks were launched at the same time. The Elfire spell, however, was canceled out by the force of the magic the morph was wielding. Then, its attack found its target. Priscilla was hit with the force of one thousand winds, and several wounds began to open as the winds sliced through her skin.

Before she could react, the morph had launched a second spell, but this time, it was at full strength since there was no opposing spell to weaken it. At the last second Priscilla managed to put up a barrier that shielded her from the attack. However, doing this depleted what magic was in her staff and its head piece shattered. Next time, she couldn't protect herself with a barrier…

Ursula attacked again but Priscilla managed to get her steed to move out of harms way, so the damage was minimal. The horse however, was hit partially by the spell and reared in pain. Priscilla was dismounted from her horse and knocked to the ground.

'This morph… its magic is way too strong for me… I'm sorry lord brother, I have let you down.'

Ursula was now standing over her target. She raised her hand for an attack, and read the incantation without a sign of sorrow in her expression. But before it could be launched, a Tomahawk landed in the morph's back.

The spell was immediately canceled and the morph turned to see who had attacked it.

Raven stood with his sword now drawn, and a look of rage on his face. "Don't ever harm my sister…" he spoke gravely. Raising his eyes to hers, he made his move.

He charged at the morph and let loose a series of vicious attacks. He swung for vital spots each time. Once at the neck, which the morph was able to side-step, and several times he lunged for the creature's heart.

The morph retaliated with a blast from its tome. Raven, seeing the incoming attack, held up his shield and allowed it to take the brunt of the attack. However, some of the winds cut up his shield arm, and others made cuts in his unprotected legs. The shield itself had several deep gashes in its protective metal.

'Priscilla, if you're going to do something, do it now…' he thought as he launched another assault on the morph.

Priscilla, who was watching from the side, began to analyze the battle.

'This is it. I need to strike now while she is distracted.' She turned and looked at her brother.

'But, what if I hurt him in the process? No, I cannot think what if. To defeat this morph, I need to take that risk.'

Steadying herself, she began to read the spell.

Slowly, a ball of anima magic formed in her hand and began to grow. As soon as it reached its maximum power, she directed it towards the morph duplicate of the Blue Crow and sent it flying.

The morph, about to attack Raven again, was hit from behind with a blast of searing heat. Before it even had time to scream in pain, it was dead.

Raven let out a sigh of relief, knowing his sister had acted bravely in aiding him, and pulled his Tomahawk out of what was left of the morph.

'It's a little burnt, but I can make do with this.' He smirked. He refused to discard a weapon until it had been used to its fullest.

He walked over to his sister and helped her up. "Thanks, I owe you one for that."

Priscilla shook her head. "No lord brother, you saved me first. I surely would have been killed had you not helped me. Besides, I could not bear to see you die protecting me and not do anything to help you."

Raven gave a slight grin, and hooked his Tomahawk back to his shield. Then he ran off to assist other members of the army.

* * *

Not far away from Lloyd was a morph of Linus. It had been fighting against Heath and his trusted wyvern, Hyperion. 

Heath circled high above the morph, looking for an opening to attack. In earlier attempts, the morph would block his attack with its regal blade, and throw the hand-axe it was equipped with at the wyvern as it went by him.

'He's too strong to fight head on. I need to catch him off guard.' Hyperion let out a roar of acknowledgement, almost as if it knew what Heath was thinking.

Seeing that the wyvern lord was not going to come at him any time soon, the morph turned to its comrade, Lloyd, and was preparing to help it fight against Eliwood.

Heath knew this was what he was looking for. "Hyperion, now! Dive!" he shouted.

The wyvern began a steep descent, and drew in its wings for more speed. The morph could only hear a loud gust behind it and turned to attack. But as it did, a spear smashed into the regal blade it was holding and sent the weapon flying. Now, only armed with a hand-axe, the morph began to attack in more of a vicious manner than before.

'Yes, I can make more progress, now that its sword is gone.' Heath knew that fighting against only one weapon now, would make his endeavors much easier. 'That's what he gets for thinking so little of Hyperion and me.'

Hyperion dove again, as Heath thrust his spear forward. The morph jumped at the last minute, avoiding the attack and landing on the wyvern. It was now holding on directly behind Heath.

Heath turned around to see the morph attack with its axe in hand. Heath, having no room and not enough speed to maneuver out of the way, took the blow head on. The axe chopped deeply into his right shoulder and blood began to pour out.

Hyperion had also taken notice of the unwanted rider, and began lashing around, in an attempt to dislodge the intruder. Heath, even in his injured state, didn't seem to have much trouble staying on. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the morph. He was jolted around and nearly catapulted off on several occasions.

Heath, ignoring the pain, turned around in his saddle and began to fight the morph. Because of the extremely close quarters, neither one of them could move anywhere than where they were seated. The morph would make several attacks, but have them blocked by Heath's spear. Its size alone gave him the edge. Although it was heavier, it was much larger and could block an attack just by being turned to its side. And if the morph tried to throw the axe, it would lose its only defense against the wyvern lord's weapon.

When Linus attacked again, Heath parried with his spear and then hit the morph with the blunt end of his weapon, which was sufficient enough to remove the morph from the wyvern. The morph landed on its feet, and miraculously without any signs of injury from the fall.

"We'll have to keep our distance from it during our attacks so it doesn't try to board us again." To this, Hyperion solemnly agreed with a low growl.

* * *

Eliwood was still holding his own against Lloyd, but it was getting harder, especially as the exhaustion was setting in. A weapon as large as Durandal took a great deal of strength to wield and his energy was draining quickly. 

Lloyd swept out the tired lord's feet from under him and prepared to finish him off, when another fighter entered the fray.

Lyn had blocked the attack that Lloyd had tried to use to finish off Eliwood. "Eliwood, get up! I can hold him off, but I'll need your help!" she yelled.

Lyn was much quicker than Eliwood, and had a much lighter weapon, but she could not match Lloyd's strength. Every time an attack was launched, it met nothing but cold steel.

Lyn matched Lloyd move for move, and seemed to be tiring out the morph.

Her Mani Katti was able to parry every attack with ease. Lyn and the morph would exchange blows at so fast a rate that it was hard for Eliwood to keep up. "I can beat this thing!" she thought confidently. Just as she lunged to finish it off, the morph side-stepped. "Crap!" The morph jumped forward and landed a kick on her.

'I have to get up. I have to help Lyn.' Eliwood forced himself to his feet, using Durandal to balance himself. He looked up to see the morph deliver a devastating kick to Lyn's midsection. Eliwood charged against the morph, with his strength renewed, because he could not bear to see his friends struck down in combat. If he still had an ounce of power within him, he would do anything to save his friends.

He brought his sword down on the morph, who tried to parry with its silver sword, but the sheer force of the attack caused the sword to shatter. No matter how fine its quality, it could not stand up to a legendary weapon. The morph, now disarmed, turned and ran off into the darkness.

After Lyn was back on her feet, she and Eliwood prepared to pursue the creature. However, their plan was put to a stop when a large lance came flying from the darkness and crashed into the floor before them. Then as suddenly as it came out, it was pulled back by a chain. They heard a loud clanking and prepared themselves.

A large general stepped forward, and with him was a brown haired warrior with a scar on its face. Lord Darrin, and Brendan Reed, the morph versions of them, had now joined the fight.

* * *

Heath was prepared to make his final attack on the morph of Linus. After whispering something to Hyperion, he then took him into a dive. The wyvern swooped past the morph, which noticed that its rider wasn't on it. The morph looked around frantically to see where its rider had gone to. 

Heath let out a war cry. He was falling towards the morph, with his spear twirling above his head. When he was closer to the ground, he thrust the spear toward the morph. It turned around just in time to see the wyvern lord shove his spear through its neck.

He had jumped off of his wyvern while in mid-air. Hyperion had only served as a distraction. With the morph unaware, Heath was able to catch it off guard with a dismounted aerial attack.

Thoroughly dead, the morph slumped to the ground and released its grip on its weapon.

Hyperion landed not too far away from Heath and awaited its master. Heath was preparing to go re-mount Hyperion when he felt cold steel pierce through his armor. Lloyd had picked up the regal blade that Linus was carrying earlier and had impaled Heath through his back. The tip of the weapon was protruding from his chest.

"AAAAAH!" he let out a cry of pain, followed by a cough of blood. 'Maybe it wasn't a good idea to disarm that sword from Linus earlier…'

Blood was pouring profusely from the wound.

Priscilla turned around in time to see the wyvern lord run through. She saw the whole thing. She saw the morph come out of the shadows, pick up the sword, and impale Heath. It was all over and done with in one swift instant.

"Heath!" she screamed. She looked around for someone to help him, but the others were too busy fighting off other morph opponents.

The morph began to twist the sword cruelly in the wound. Heath screamed in agony.

Priscilla could not stand by and watch the honorable knight die. He had done too much for her. She looked to him for strength. She figured that he would always be there to protect her.

Looking around for a way to help Heath, she noticed that her tome was completely used up. The morph that she killed earlier! It had a tome, but where did it go!

Priscilla started searching the remains of the Ursula morph. Aha! She picked it up and started to read the spell as quickly as she could. When she finished, she released the spell and sent a large gathering of green energy at the morph.

When it hit, a whirlwind engulfed the morph and all of its blood seemed to fly from its body at once, due to the number of wounds that opened up simultaneously in mere seconds. It fell to the ground dead, but the sword remained in the wyvern lord.

Priscilla ran over to Heath with tears in her eyes. Heath had fallen to his knees and slumped forward. He was breathing hard, and started to feel a cold numbness.

Priscilla wrapped her arms around Heath when she reached him. "Heath! Please… don't die… you… you can't die." Tears were streaming down her face.

He gave a small grin, and returned the embrace. "As long as I know… that you're safe… I feel that… I have… performed my… duties…"

Priscilla couldn't bear the thought of losing the one that she loved. "Heath… you have to hold on!"

Heath reached behind him and grabbed the hilt of the sword. With all of his strength he pulled on it and dislodged it from where it had been embedded.

"Heath! Don't do that! You'll lose more blood that way! Please hold on, I'll get a healer!"

Priscilla was an adept healer herself, but she didn't have any healing staves on her. They had all been given to other members of the group, who played a more vital healing role. She could use anima magic, and therefore became more of an offensive unit.

She called for help, and the group spared what healer they could. Serra came over to help, and was abhorred by the amount of blood coming out of the wyvern lord.

"Oh dear Elimine, he has lost a great deal of blood. Priscilla, get up and help me with this."

She followed Serra's orders and took the recover staff from her that she offered. The two healers stood over Heath and cast their spells at the same time. An extremely bright blue light was emitted from the head of each staff.

Heath could feel a warming sensation washing over him. His wounds felt less painful than before, but he still felt light headed from the loss of blood.

Serra put away her staff and handed Priscilla a roll of bandages. "Can you handle bandaging him on your own? I have to get back to the others to make sure that they are okay."

Priscilla looked at her with hopeful eyes. "Yes, I think I can manage alone. And, thank you."

Serra gave a wink. "It's what I do. Besides, you can worship me for it later! I have others that need me!" she called back as she went off to help the others.

Priscilla wrapped the bandages around Heath's chest and made sure that the bleeding had stopped.

Heath looked at her with a smile. "I don't know what I would do without you. I can never repay this debt to you."

Priscilla still had tears in her eyes. She punched Heath in the shoulder. "You idiot! What were you thinking!" She began to cry even more. "You could have… died." She whispered. "I almost lost you. Please Heath. Promise me that you will never leave me. Please stay by my side…"

Many times before he had tried to explain to her how he could never be together with her because of her lineage. He was a soldier and she was a princess. She never accepted this though. And now, in this moment, Heath felt that he could not turn away from her again. She had won out.

He put his hand under her chin and lifted it up so that he was now looking directly into her ruby eyes. "Priscilla. I will never leave you. I promise, no matter what."

"Oh Heath…" What more was to be said?

* * *

The group's tactician, Kaia, had been managing the rest of the group whilst the individual battles had broken out here and there. 

She was responsible for making sure that no other enemy troops came into the dragon's gate. She took a group consisting of Oswin, Wallace, Canas, Erk, the Pegasus sisters, Harken, Isadora, Lord Pent, Lady Louise, Kent, and Sain.

They were at the back of the room putting a stop to any reinforcements that thought about aiding the other morphs.

"Oswin, Harken, Wallace! Line up in a wall of defense and don't let anyone past you! Erk, Canas, Lord Pent, and Lady Louise! You get behind them and provide support fire! Kent, Sain, Isadora, Farina, Fiora, and Florina! You guys try to flank the oncoming enemies."

Although she was young, she was a very capable tactician. She had gotten them this far and certainly wasn't planning on giving up. She was calm and level-headed in the most serious of situations.

There were only a few morphs left in the main chamber of the room. Darrin, Uhai, Brendan Reed, Jerme, and Kenneth were the only ones left.

Lyn and Eliwood prepared to take on Brendan and Darrin. But before they could begin, Hector and Matthew showed up.

"Well well. So Darrin's here is he? I get dibs on him." Hector was fingering his axe anxiously.

"Okay then, I'll take the big guy." Matthew pulled out his daggers and began twirling them.

Lyn and Eliwood looked at them questioningly. "Well who does that leave us?"

As if to answer their question, two arrows shot past them. Matthew pointed to the source of the arrows with his daggers. "You can take that guy, and his demented looking friend."

"Uhai…" Lyn's stare was fixed on the Nomad Trooper.

"What friend?" Eliwood asked, not seeing anyone else in that general area.

A bishop stepped out from the darkness. "Kenneth…"

* * *

Hector stared at the morph of the Darrin. "Heh, last time we met, I broke my favorite axe when I killed you. Now its time for you to meet my new friend." He slung Armads, the lightning axe, over his shoulder. 

The morph smirked and advanced forward.

Matthew was preparing to engage the former black fang leader, but right as he was about to attack the morph, it fell forward in a pool of blood, already dead.

"What! That was my kill!" he shouted in anger.

Legault stepped out from the shadows, his daggers dripping with blood. "Sorry Matthew, but I knew the guy and I owed him that at least. It was my job to put him to rest."

"Hmph, next time at least tell me that before you just go and kill my target."

* * *

Darrin launched his lance forward. Hector managed to dodge it, but barely. 'Damn, he's faster than what he was when he was alive…' Hector knew this fight wouldn't be easy. 

He attempted to get behind the morph and attack its vulnerable back, but he couldn't get so far as a foot without the morph trying to strike him down.

When Darrin thrust his weapon at Hector again, he turned Armads to its side so that the axe head blocked the lance.

As he lowered his axe, Hector saw the morph charging at him. For a general in armor as thick as it had on, it was moving at an extremely fast rate.

Before Hector had time to counter attack the morph, it slammed into him, causing him to fly back a good distance and slam into a large stone pillar.

The morph charged at Hector again before he could get to his feet. Darrin whipped out his lance and aimed at Hector's neck.

The lance didn't miss Hector, but it did miss a vital spot. Instead of it hitting soft flesh, a terrible crunch was heard where it met Hector's armor. The lance had gone through Hector's shoulder, armor and all.

"AH!" Hector yelled in pain. He grunted when he tried to get up. The general was not going to surrender though. Hector searched for Armads, but he had dropped it when the morph tackled him the first time.

Hector knew he had to get the morph to back off for at least a second. Using both of his feet he shoved the general away from him. The general staggered backwards, taking the lance with him.

Hector had no other weapons on him, save one sword. 'Grr… a sword is no match for a lance… but I can't just give up and die!'

He used the stone pillar he had been knocked into for support, and got to his feet. Darrin was waiting for him. He threw his lance forward, confident the sword Hector had could not stop his mighty weapon.

Hector noticed with great reluctance, that his sword was a Lancereaver. This meant that he had the edge in the match of his sword against the morph's lance.

"Yaaaaaa!" Hector swung his sword like a bat, hitting the oncoming lance and knocking it off of its intended course. He then dodged around the side of it. Running straight at the general he paralleled his sword to the lance in between the lance and the chain that the general used to pull back the huge weapon.

When he was almost at Darrin he pulled his sword upward, and severed the chain that connected the lance to the general's armor. Now Darrin was completely unarmed. Hector then jumped up and crashed himself into the massive morph, knocking it off balance and onto its back.

Hector grabbed the now cut chain and swung it toward his mighty axe, which was still a good distance away. One of the links on the chain became caught on the blade of the axe. Seeing that he was successful in his effort, Hector yanked back on the chain and extended his hand to catch the thunder axe.

The downed general was trying to get up, but in vain, as its armor was too heavy for it to lift itself up, especially from off of its back.

The axe flew into Hector's grip, and he immediately brought it down onto the general. A loud clang of metal on metal was heard. Pieces of the morph's armor plating when flying.

Hector raised his weapon again and repeated the process until the blade of the axe hit solid flesh. When he struck the final blow, the morph's body was crushed, its frail body being no match for a weapon of such magnitude.

Hector looked to his friends, who were locked in battle with Uhai and Kenneth.

* * *

Lyn had managed to kill Uhai's horse, so now the Nomad Trooper was on foot and running, all the while releasing volleys of arrows at Lyn. It didn't seem to be tiring at all. 

Lyn lunged at the morph with all of her strength and struck upward with her sword. Much to her surprise, it turned its bow to the side and used it to parry the sword.

She withdrew her sword and tried to gain some distance. She pulled out her own bow and began to exchange arrows with Uhai.

Not far from her, Eliwood was taking on Kenneth. Eliwood's first attempt was to attack the morph head on. He jumped and tried to bring his searing blade down upon the morph. Kenneth gave an evil grin and put up a staff. A barrier formed around him immediately.

The sword met with the barrier and seemed to just stop. Eliwood put all the rest of his strength that he could behind the attack. The bubble of white magic that was the barrier seemed to bend, and it slowly looked as though the sword was getting farther into the barrier.

To this Kenneth raised one hand in Eliwood's direction and chanted a spell. A bright white explosion launched Eliwood away from the morph.

"Lord Eliwood! Let me help!" The cheerful young Sage that was Nino had come to his aid.

"Nino! You can't take him on! He's way too strong with that kind of magic!"

Nino giggled and pointed to her tome. "Remember the magic triangle Lord Eliwood! My anima magic gives me an advantage over him!"

She knew though, that this was no time to be careless. This morph was much more powerful than Sonia was… so she knew that a single mistake could be her end.

Kenneth cocked an eyebrow as to question the worthiness of this youth opponent.

Nino smirked and began forming magic glyphs in the air. When the formation was completed, she extended her hand and fired a blast of freezing cold ice at the bishop.

Surprised by the power that the young sage had, Kenneth retaliated with a light magic spell. This spell was different than the one he used on Eliwood though.

'That spell...' Lord Pent had told Nino about this magic before. A powerful light magic that few could hope to master… Luce.

It was an extremely dangerous light spell that could destroy anything in the immediate area if used correctly. It also could pinpoint and attack weak points of its target for extra damage.

The attacks met in mid-air. The resounding explosion stopped both attacks. 'We're even, but only because my magic is of a stronger element…' Nino knew that she would be in for quite a fight with this.

She began walking at a slow pace, and Kenneth did the same thing. They were walking parallel from each other. Then Nino broke into a run, and launched another spell at the evil bishop. Kenneth did the same.

Again the spells met, and again it was a draw. But when the smoke from the explosion cleared, Kenneth couldn't see Nino anymore. He put up a barrier around himself and awaited an attack.

An explosion came from behind him. He turned and saw that Nino had attacked him while he wasn't looking. He launched another attack from his tome. Nino dove behind one of the many stone pillars that occupied the room, and avoided the attack. Kenneth blasted the pillar, and it collapsed, along with a great deal the ceiling which it was supporting. If that sage was behind there, she would be dead now.

A bolt of fire struck Kenneth in his back. What! But how? He turned to see Nino, with an innocent smile on her face. How did she get from there to behind him without him noticing…

He let loose another attack of Luce. Nino held up a staff and instantly vanished, reappearing in another area of the room.

'So, she's using a warp staff. Well two can play at that game.'

A rune appeared beneath below Kenneth's feet and he too vanished.

'Oh no… I don't know where he's going to come from…'

He appeared in the worst place she could imagine… right in front of her. He wrenched the staff from her grip and warped again.

When he reappeared again he snapped the staff and let out an evil cackle.

"Now that we have that out of the way, let us continue."

Nino charged directly at the morph with her right hand extended. Kenneth laughed, thinking that it was a vain attempt to take him down.

Upon closer observation of her outstretched hand he noticed a small glowing ball of energy. 'What is that?'

When Nino close enough, she called out her attack, and the ball of anima energy grew much larger in an instant.

'So that's her plan! If she attacks me at point blank with an attack of such strength, my resistance won't matter, it'll utterly destroy my being!'

Kenneth put up a barrier, and watched as the sage crashed into it. The magical energy exploded and when the smoke cleared, Nino was on the ground, and she was a bit singed. Her spell had backfired when he put up his barrier.

He grabbed her tome and threw it aside. "Well, now it's time to wrap things up. Without your tome your magic is useless."

Kenneth still had his barrier up, and he began chanting his spell. Nino had a fearful look in her eye, a look that explained that she knew she was going to die. That is, until he was about to launch his attack.

Nino shot her arm towards the barrier. Her hand managed to get inside the barrier and her palm was pointed directly at Kenneth's face. She winked at the bishop. "Who says that I need a tome to perform magic?"

The morph gasped in horror. 'She did this to me on purpose! She lured me into coming this close and leaving myself open! NOOOOO!'

She narrowed her eyes and called her attack. "Fimbulvetr!"

A streaming blue energy swirled up her arm and gathered in her hand, and then was released in the form of an arctic wind. Because the barrier was up, the spell was contained inside the sphere and concentrated even more.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the morph screamed. When the spell was finished, Kenneth was nothing more than a block of ice, with an expression of pain forever plastered on his face. That was, until Eliwood smashed the block of ice that contained the bishop and shattered him into thousands of pieces.

"Great job Nino, you handled yourself very well."

Hearing a compliment from a lord made the young sage smile. "Thank you Lord Eliwood!"

Eliwood walked off to find out the status of the rest of his group, leaving Nino to bask in her victory.

However, Nino was unaware of the figure that had snuck up behind her. She only noticed it when a dagger came under her throat.

"My knives will enjoy feasting on such a strong opponent. I saw what you did, and now I am going to carve you into little ribbons."

Jerme… a dirty assassin who enjoyed nothing more than making his opponents suffer at the blades of his daggers. He had Nino where he wanted her.

Nino began to fear for her life. She knew how dangerous a man he was and how no one he ever set out to kill survived. She was ready to break down and cry.

Right before Jerme was about to cut through her neck, another dagger came under Jerme's neck and sliced it open, then another came through the back of his neck.

He dropped his knives and trembled in the pain of death. The last thing he heard was the cold voice of the Angel of Death, "Not if I carve you up first…"

The body fell to the ground and didn't move again.

Nino was still too afraid to move, until she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Jaffar standing behind her with a dead Jerme lying in front of him.

"Jaffar! Oh, thank you!" she sobbed into the assassin's chest. "He was going to kill me! I was so scared!"

Jaffar put his hands on her shoulders, so that she looked at him. "I have been watching you this whole time Nino. I would never let anything bad happen to you. I would sacrifice myself before I let you get hurt…"

"Jaffar… I… thank you." Jaffar did something he rarely, if ever, did, he smiled. He waited until she had regained her composure, and then together they walked back to the rest of the group.

Now there was only one battle that the outcome remained unknown… Uhai and Lyn.

* * *

Both Sacaeans were strong, but Uhai was better trained in the bow. Lyn had discarded hers a while back due to a lack of arrows. Uhai still had plenty to expend though. Lyn was on constant defense, and Uhai didn't seem to be letting up at all. 

Lyn, getting tired of running away, dashed toward the Nomad Trooper and tried to attack him with her sword. He used his bow once again to parry her attacks.

When she lunged forward at him hoping for a fatal blow, he moved his bow so her arm went inside of the curve and the string. Then he spun it violently and pulled it back. Lyn was pulled along with it and was thrown to the ground.

He prepared to fire an arrow into Lyn's skull, but before he could even notch it, an axe embedded itself in his head. The morph dropped its bow and fell to the ground lifeless.

"You need to be more careful Lyn. Don't take on enemies you know you can't handle." Lyn recognized this snide remark's owner as Hector.

He offered his hand to help her up. "Just kidding Lyn. Sorry about the intrusion on your battle, but it really looked like you needed help."

Although the Sacaeans were prideful, they did not let pride get in the way of their friendship.

Lyn smiled and accepted Hector's help. "Thanks. I guess I was just careless…"

"Don't doubt yourself Lyn. You're a strong woman, you just need to be a bit more level-headed."

Lyn smiled and whacked Hector on the back of his head. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Eliwood walked up to them, with Durandal over his shoulder. "Come on you two… we have a much more serious matter at hand."

They looked at each other and turned to Eliwood. "You're right, let's go. Nergal awaits…"

* * *

Draknal: And that is the first chapter. The next one will take place in Magvel and we will follow the final fight with the twins and their posse. You'll soon understand where this fic got its name from. 

Guy: A bit happy aren't we?

Draknal: Why wouldn't I be? I just posted a fic that I think will be a huge hit with the other people on They have to review it first. Remember people, reviewing is your job! If you want him to continue writing this fic, you need to give him a reason to, your reviews!

Draknal: Listen to the beautiful Swordmistress!


	2. Stand and Fight

Draknal: -dragged out by muses-

Karla: Well?

Raven: -tapping foot- Yeah, well?

Guy: -fingering sword- You gonna say something?

Draknal: …sorry people. I didn't mean to take soooo long to update! But with school coming to a close and all, I will be updating _much _more often. The other reason is this, I have found my source of inspiration.

Guy: And that would be?

Draknal: One of the most evil and potent things imaginable, something I can't stand… angst…

Karla: Hm, angst?

Draknal: -nods- Yep, whenever I read angst, I get inspiration. This means updates will come non-stop now. So be ready people! Now, on to the disclaimer!

Raven: Ah, it's good to hear that again. –ahem- Draknal does not own Fire Emblem or its characters, just the plot of this story.

(A/N: Yes, the story title has changed so that way it won't be confused with the other story, "Worlds Collide" by KuraiKitty. Just figured I'd let everyone know!)

**

* * *

**

A Clash of Realities

By: Draknal

Chapter 2: Stand and Fight

In a place that few knew existed, the ancient temple of the Darkling Woods, the Demon King had begun his resurrection…

But one thing stood in the way of this event, a group of heroes led by the twins of Renais, Eirika and Ephraim. They had been a thorn in his side for a long while now, and the time had come for them to be removed, permanently.

Myrrh was still upset over the death of her father figure, Morva. He had been turned into a draco zombie by Lyon for challenging him. The group had then confronted Morva when they had dispatched the dark bishop Riev.

Myrh was the one to strike him down, feeling that it was her duty as a Manakete and to him.

Ephraim walked up next to her. "Myrh."

She looked up into the concerned eyes of the great lord. "You don't have to continue this fight if you don't feel up to it. You have done a great deal already, and after such a loss, I can understand if you don't want to keep going."

Myrrh wiped away the tears that had been streaming down her face earlier. "No Lord Ephraim, I am going to continue the fight that my father started. The Demon King will pay for what he has done. This is my home and I must defend it, and… it would have been what father would have wanted."

"Your resolve is admirable Myrrh. I'm glad to see that you will keep going with us." Ephraim then turned to the others that were preparing to enter the temple.

"The same goes for all of you. If you don't feel that you are up to this final fight, you may turn back now. No one here will think any less of you for doing so." He waited to see how everyone would respond.

"Alright then, later." Rennac turned and started walking off, but the auburn haired rogue didn't get far before receiving a rebuke.

"Rennac get back here! It is your duty to protect me and you must help us to fight this evil in the name of righteousness!"

The rogue cringed visibly. Princess L'Arachel always had a way of making sure that he never got too far.

Dozla laughed at the poor rogue's plight, "Haw haw! Looks like you're seeing this through to the end lad!"

Rennac shot him a glare. "Quiet old man. I'm not one to enjoy open battle such as you do. I wasn't paid enough to do something like this…"

L'Arachel, tired of his bellyaching, decided to shut him up. "Rennac, quit your whining! Payment should be nothing compared to the glory you will have in performing such a task in the name of good."

Rennac mumbled something under his breath and walked back to the group.

Ephraim surveyed his gathered allies. "Well, anyone else?" he asked.

Innes stepped forward. "The soldiers of Frelia are prepared to see this to the end. We will see that this evil is stopped in the name of our homeland."

Tana, Syrene, Vanessa, and Moulder each nodded in agreement.

Gerik let out a laugh and also came forward. "Well prince, if you're going then so are we. Gerik's mercenaries are gonna see this through with you."

To this Tethys and Marissa also agreed.

Ephraim looked to the doorway leading into the dark temple. "Then, let us be on our way. The Demon King is expecting us, so let's not keep him waiting."

The group entered the temple, knowing deep inside that some of them might not come out alive.

* * *

Upon entering the darkened temple, torches lit up in several areas of the room. There were columns in several locations, which came out of the water that encircled the center of the chamber. 

The center of the room had a large set of stairs which led up to an altar that was surrounded by four large torches that burned with blue flames. Behind the altar, was Lyon, or at least, the soulless body that was the vessel of the Demon King.

He raised his arms, and in a flash he disappeared. He reappeared in front of the group with a dark tome in hand.

His empty black orbs scanned over the group. "So," he started in an icy snakelike tone, "you have come to stop me have you?"

He leaned his head back and let out a maniacal laugh. "Your efforts shall prove to be futile and if nothing else, humorous. My resurrection is near, and I will not be stopped by the likes of you mortals!"

Eirika could not stand hearing him any longer. "Silence you foul snake! We _will_ stop you and free Lyon from your evil control!"

"Ha, ha. How touching," he sneered. "Your foolish Lyon is no more. I have devoured his soul, and how I savored it so… It was so pure and innocent, which made it all the better." He let out another devilish laugh.

"Yaa!" Eirika lunged forward with Sieglinde, hoping to strike the monster down where it stood.

The Demon King jumped back to avoid a hit and disappeared again in a flash. The only thing left of him at the moment was his echoing laughter.

Different grunts and roars were heard around the room. Because of the echo, the group could not determine where the enemies were going to come from.

Everyone prepared for the worst, drawing their weapons and taking defensive positions.

Several entombed, along with a few wights, emerged from the darkness around them.

The entombed attacked directly while the wights drew their bows and began unleashing volleys of arrows upon the group.

"Gwah ha! This is what I have been waiting for!" yelled Dozla. "On to battle and glory!" He then charged axe first into the group of entombed that were attempting to surround the group.

"Yes, for the most holy and noble cause!" shouted L'Arachel as she drew forth her tome and began casting.

The group dispersed and charged into battle with the undead forces.

Gerik drew his axe that the twins had given him to use in the fight. It was a finely crafted axe whose blade consisted of a sleek black metal which had been enchanted against the undead. The grip was silver with a green gemstone in the middle of it.

He leapt into battle with it raised high in the air. Right behind him was Tethys, who was prepared to stay with Gerik till the end.

Across from them, Marissa and Joshua went into combat with the wights that had drawn their swords. Even though they were on the same side, they liked keep up the competition by counting the number of enemies they had dispatched.

Joshua was wielding Audhulma, the sword his mother had given him before her death. Marissa was using the light brand that the group had received from the soldiers at castle Rausten. Both weapons were specifically designed for slaying undead.

Eirika was making her way up the right side of the room with a group which consisted of herself, Seth, Artur, Lute, Colm, and Neimi.

Ephraim was heading up the left side of the room, with Forde, Kyle, Myrrh, and Natasha.

In the center, princess L'Arachel and prince Innes were leading the bulk of their forces, which was made up of Moulder, Gilliam, Franz, Amelia, Commander Duessel, Saleh, Ewan, Ross, Garcia, Rennac, and Knoll.

Other members of the group, namely the flyers, were doing what they could from above with the room they were given. The area in the temple was quite expansive, which gave them plenty of room to work in.

Cormag and Tana were keeping altitude over the left side of the room, while Syrene and Vanessa kept watch over the group that was working its way up the right side.

* * *

The Demon King observed all that was going on from the upper most level of the temple. 'Foolish mortals, such an annoyance they have become. No matter, they will be dealt with soon enough…' 

He then turned his attention back to his ritual, which was nearing completion.

Eirika was fueled by her rage towards the Demon King's actions involving Lyon. Her team was making incredible progress, charging up the right side of the room. She herself was leading the attack, shredding anything that dare attempt to get in her way with her sword of lightning.

'I have no time for this…' she thought. 'We need to get to the Demon King. There may still be a chance to save Lyon!'

With this in mind she continued to push forward. Seth was at her side the entire time, fending off any attackers which tried to flank the princess. Artur, Lute, and Neimi took care of approaching enemies from a distance. Light and Anima magic flashed everywhere, engulfing several groups at a time, sending them back whence they came. Arrows rained down on any enemies unfortunate enough to be within range. Colm watched the group's rear, slashing up foes that were dumb enough to get within striking distance of him.

Above them, Syrene and Vanessa were dealing with the deathgoyles and gargoyles that sought to attack the group below with spears and javelins.

Syrene urged her Pegasus downward so that they were diving straight for a deathgoyle that was preparing to launch a spear at one of the group members below them.

The miserable demon never got the attack off, as a thrown javelin caught it in the neck which such force that the beast was rammed and pinned to a nearby wall, shrieking and howling in pain as it bled to death.

Vanessa had drawn her Wind Sword and was taking on massive groups of gargoyles at a time. Searing winds sliced through them easily and crippled their wings. With no means to keep themselves aloft, the gargoyles fell to their deaths, several feet below.

Ephraim and his team were also making progress, albeit not as quickly. Tarvos, Maelduin, and Bael blocked their way. However, the heroes were not going to let that stop them.

Ephraim was leading the group with Forde on his left flank, and Kyle on his right. Myrrh and Natasha followed behind, lending what support they could.

Siegmund cleared the way, leaving burning corpses in its wake. Currently it was locked in a fight with a Maelduin's axe.

Ephraim lunged forward with his spear, hoping to skewer the centaur, however it batted the attack to the side with the swing of its axe, which was radiating dark energy. It was a devil axe, one of the most powerful kinds of axes ever created. Rather than being magically enchanted, they were cursed, making them much more dangerous than normal weaponry.

Had it been a normal axe, the Lance of Fire would have splintered it easily and continued on to the kill. The beast struck again with its axe, which Ephraim blocked by turning his weapon sideways. Using its powerful hind legs, the Maelduin pushed forward with all of its might, knocking Ephraim backwards.

It raised its weapon to strike the downed Lord, but stopped right as it finished bringing the weapon up. It faltered for a second, before toppling over with a cry of pain, revealing a Spear protruding from its back.

Looking up, the Great Lord saw Tana, who gave him a thumbs up. A moment later she dove down and pulled her weapon from the creature's corpse as she flew past.

* * *

Kyle and Forde each had their hands full, trying to hold off the advancing Baels. 

Each had dismounted from their steeds, seeing that they were at a disadvantage against such numbers while on horseback. Had they been toppled, they would have been easy prey.

They ended up back to back, Forde with his steel lance out, and Kyle with his silver sword. They had been encircled by a group of Bael, which thought to make a meal of them.

"Any bright ideas?" Forde asked to his fellow knight from over his shoulder.

After a minute of silence, Kyle replied, "Nope. Other than don't die? I can't think of anything."

The red armor clad knight grinned, "Well, guess we go along with what comes to mind."

"And that would be?" Kyle asked.

After a small chuckle, Forde charged forward, weapon at the ready. "Let's take as many of these bastards down with us as we can!"

Kyle also let out a chuckle, "You reckless fool… for Renais!" He too charged forward, towards the claws of the awaiting Bael.

In the middle of the room, L'Arachel and Innes were gaining territory with their team. L'Arachel's light spells were tearing through the undead that dare approach, and Innes was busy sharp-shooting enemies with enchanted arrows from his Nidhogg serpent bow.

Looking over to his allies to the left and right of their position, he could tell that they weren't gaining ground as quickly as the other groups.

"This is pathetic! We must work faster! If we do not reach the center area the same time the other groups do, they'll be isolated from any help and might not last! We can _not _let that happen!"

He notched two arrows and let them fly. Both lodged themselves in the skull of a different wight. A mauthe doog that got close enough hurled itself at him. He spun his bow to the side and caught it in the jaws of the dog-like beast, rendering its attack harmless. Before it could attempt to claw the prince, Innes grabbed an arrow out of his quiver and slammed it point first into the top of the creature's head. It howled in pain, then collapsed, dead.

L'Arachel wasted no time in dispatching any enemies that were in her sights. However, it eventually became clear that the numbers that the enemies possessed were too great for her to manage, and she was slowly losing ground until… her tome fizzled, drained completely of its magical energies.

A lone Gwyllgi quickly made its way to the princess of Rausten and jumped at her. It collided with the Valkyrie and dislodged her from her mount. The beast doubled around, now facing her.

"Heavens protect me…" she whispered before closing her eyes.

A loud screech of pain and a thud caused her to snap her eyes open. Before her lay the Gwyllgi, and a few feet from it lay its head, cut clean off its body.

"You might wanna be a bit more careful princess," came the solemn voice of Rennac as he sheathed his blades and helped L'Arachel to her feet.

"Oh, and you could probably use one of these," he stated as he pulled out a tome from within his Rogue garbs and tossed it to his employer.

She was at a loss for words at the moment. When no response came from her, Rennac turned and said "Well, I better get back to my job. Oh, and I'll expect a nice bonus for saving you just now." The he ran off to assist others.

'Well, so much for that being a selfless act,' the Valkyrie thought to herself. She remounted her steed and continued forwards. She made more progress than before though, seeing as how she had one of the most powerful light tomes known to man, Aura. How Rennac came by such a rare item she figured was best not to be known.

Dozla, Garcia, and Ross were also cutting through enemies quite effectively. The axe wielding berserkers were not to be denied their victory.

"Gwah ha, I live for battle!" Dozla cried as he cleaved another Entombed in two.

"Yeah! Battle is what keeps us going, right pop?" Ross asked as he let the Tomahawk he was wielding fly, sending it into a group of Revenants.

"Yaaargh!" Garcia yelled as he brought his axe down upon an unfortunate Mogall that had its… eye, turned. "That's right, and as long as there's fighting to be done, we shall surge forward without falter!"

'Almost there… almost there…' was the only thought occupying the Princess of Renais' mind. "We are almost to our destination! We must fight onward."

Her troops followed her closely, not a single one of them hesitating to continue on after her.

* * *

All three groups noticed simultaneously how quiet things had become after they had dispatched their groups of enemies. No more foes had come upon them or tried to stop them. Had they cleared them all? Had they destroyed the Demon King's forces? 

A low rumbling answered that for them… followed by a loud roar from above.

Out from the shadows came several Cyclopes, and from the air, Draco Zombies…

'No…' all four group leaders thought at the exact same moment.

(A/N: One group, the center one, was so large that it had two leaders, so _yes _I know how to count.)

Looking to their groups, they knew this would be a hell of a lot harder that the previous enemies. Several members of their teams had sustained injury.

Forde had taken a poison pincer to the chest, and was currently being treated by Natasha. Kyle had suffered a few cuts and bruises at the hands of the Bael that he had killed off. Ewan had been hit in the shoulder by an arrow from a Bonewalker. Seth's mount had been killed when a massive group of Entombed surrounded the Paladin and dismounted him. He himself was sore from being thrown from the animal's back.

Dozla had been bitten several times by Mauthe Doogs, but he didn't dare let something like that slow him down. Amelia had taken a serious blow to her midsection from the axe of a Maelduin. Fortunately, her armor took the brunt of the attack. Gilliam had many cuts and indentions along his armor, but had taken no _serious _damage.

Other than that, the groups were just tired from their heated battles.

Fortunately, they reached a converging point where everyone was able to meet up.

"Five, six… I count seven Cyclopes. And three Draco Zombies. This definitely isn't looking good," Ephraim stated.

And indeed things weren't looking good. Each creature possessed an immense amount of strength and power. These enemies were not to be trifled with. However, they did not attack right away.

"Do you see how your efforts are in vain?" the Demon King bellowed from an unseen location. "You will not succeed in your attempts, and will lay broken and mangled at my feet very soon. You have no chance, no hope at all! Muahahaha…!" And his laugh soon faded into the darkness.

As soon as his laughter had died, the new fleet of undead attacked.

The group of heroes took immediate action. Ephraim and Eirika both ran towards the nearest Cyclops, weapons at the ready.

Joshua and Marissa went for another one. Duessel, Amelia, and Franz went for the third Cyclops. Colm, Rennac, and Dozla went for the fourth one. Gerik and Seth went for the fifth. Forde and Kyle went to the sixth, and Garcia, Ross, and Gilliam went for the last one.

In the air, Cormag and Tana went for one Draco Zombie, and Vanessa and Syrene went for the second one. The third was left unoccupied, that is, until Myrrh called upon the power of her dragonstone and transformed, then took flight.

L'Arachel, Ewan, Saleh, Neimi, Artur, Lute, Innes, and Knoll stayed back, providing support fire for the frontline attackers. Moulder and Natasha went where they were needed, for healing and so on.

Ephraim went in first, while his sister went around the side of the Cyclops, to attack it from behind. The prince jousted his lance forward, landing him a hit on the towering monster. It was completely unphased by the blow, and didn't even register the pain.

It _did _however, find itself a target. It raised its axe and struck down towards the young Lord, who barely evaded the attack by rolling to the side. The spot he had been inhabiting only seconds before was completely torn apart by the sheer force behind the axe. Ground was ripped up and stone flooring was sent flying.

Eirika seized the opportunity to let out a series of sword strokes on the unprotected backside of the creature. Small nicks and cuts appeared on the monster, but it still didn't acknowledge any pain.

A slight pricking sensation got its attention though, and it whirled around slapping Eirika aside with its free hand, knocking the princess of Renais violently against the nearby wall.

Sieglinde was knocked from her hands in the process, and landed several yards away from her. Disarmed, she had no way of protecting herself from the Cyclops, which was now advancing on her.

Joshua and Marissa were working quickly on dispatching their Cyclops. They were so agile that the monster could not keep accurate track of either swordmaster. One would attack the front and move aside, then the other would attack from behind.

"Too bad for you monster, luck seems to be on our side today," Joshua grinned as he sliced up the backside of his foe.

"Luck has nothing to do with it, it just can't keep up with fighters as skilled as us," Marissa commented as she continued her assault on the front of the Cyclops, before moving away and around it with incredible speed.

Tired of playing 'turn around' the Cyclops grabbed its hammer with both hands and swung it around in a circle.

"Get down!" Joshua yelled as he tackled Marissa to the ground. The monster's weapon sailed over them less than a second later.

"Okay," Marissa admitted, "Maybe we have _some_ luck on our side."

Both swordmasters leapt back to their feet and began their assault once again.

Duessel and his two young Paladin apprentices charged towards their massive enemy. Noticing small beings coming towards it, the Cyclops smashed its hammer into the ground, sending a shockwave towards the mounted knights.

(A/N: I decided that since Amelia was technically Duessel's apprentice, being a subordinate and all and working under him, Franz could be too, since he was an aspiring young knight, who also happened to spend a lot of time around Amelia. Having them both train together under Duessel only seemed right.)

Duessel effortlessly managed to get his steed to jump over the wave of dirt and stone that had been sent at them. Amelia and Franz were not so lucky…

Their horses were unable to avoid the wave and lost their balance. Franz's horse fell headfirst into the ground and launched its rider, who landed very roughly on the stone floor at least fifteen yards away. Amelia was only knocked off to the side of her mount, which tripped moments later and tumbled forward until it at last stopped in front of the Cyclops.

The monster, having no conscience, raised its weapon into the air and smashed the spot where the injured steed lay. When the weapon was lifted, only a mangled corpse remained of the once proud horse.

Duessel, took this opportunity to ride between the legs of the beast, and with a sword in one hand, and an axe in the other, cut both tendons in the legs of the monster when he passed under it.

It howled in pain and dropped down to its knees for a moment. It was truly in pain and was filled with rage. The beast had to take its anger out on something, and that _something _happened to be the nearby body of the young knight of Renais, Franz, who was currently unconscious from his violent landing after being dismounted.

Intent on reaching its prey, the Cyclops crawled towards the young boy. Duessel noticed this while circling back from his previous attack. He urged his horse onward, hoping to make it to the knight before the creature did.

Amelia, only a few yards from Franz, shook her head to remove the last of the shock from her fall. She looked up to see his unconscious form, and the gruesome form of the Cyclops that her mentor had crippled. It was heading right for Franz, with murder in its eye.

"Franz…" she murmured. Wasting no more time, she drew her Light Brand from its sheath and sprinted towards the knight of Renais as fast as she could. 'I won't let it kill you… you can't die…'

'No, I'm not going to make it!' Duessel concluded when he saw the beast raise its hammer into the air over Franz. 'I've failed to protect them…'

* * *

A fight raged in the air above the Cyclopes, and it was no less gruesome than the one below. 

Tana and Cormag were having serious trouble keeping their Draco Zombie at bay. For something so large, it was extremely agile and quick. Its breath weapon was just as potent as its regular attacks, which made it an even _more _fearsome enemy.

Tana flew past the Draco Zombie that had been approaching, and hurled a spear at it. The carrion dragon swatted it away with one of its great wings and continued its descent towards a readied Wyvern Lord.

'If I can deal with scum like Valter, _this _thing should pose no problem…' Cormag thought sternly.

He put forward his silver lance, and urged his Wyvern on. An enemy like this would not cause him to falter. He wouldn't give in to fear.

Diving under its extended claw, Cormag forced his wyvern along the side of the Draco Zombie and smashed his weapon against the the surface of its scaly rotted hide.

The beast let out a growl to signal its annoyance. It flipped backwards and began after the Wyvern Lord. Tana saw the demon dragon closing in on Cormag and needed to buy him time. She drew a Light Brand from her back and fired a beam of light magic at the dragon, hitting it square in the back.

It roared in pain, feeling its hide burning from the blessed magic. The demon turned its attention to Tana, seeing her as the larger threat.

She dove straight at the dragon, firing more beams from her weapon, the Draco Zombie, in response, fired its most devastating weapon, its breath attack.

The poisonous breath weapon came straight at the Peg knight, who managed to barely avoid its attack. As she swooped under the creature, she stabbed upwards and dragged the sword along the underbelly of the monster, which roared in pain again.

"Ha! Take that you nasty dragon!" she yelled, happy with her work. She failed however, to notice the tail coming right at her.

Cormag had just turned to attack the dragon when he saw it swing its massive tail at Tana, and connect with her Pegasus. The animal was knocked off course and sent flailing through the air as it tried to correct its flight.

"No! Tana, what were you thinking!" he shouted.

Tana had been knocked clear off and was plummeting towards the ground. It looked as though the force of the blow had knocked her out.

Without a second thought, Cormag forced his Wyvern down and followed after Tana's rapidly descending form.

Rennac, Colm, and Dozla were working fiercely to take down their foe. However, daggers, blades, and axes didn't seem to be working very well at the moment.

The creature's hide was quite thick, and tough to cut through, even for Dozla's axe.

'I'm definitely not getting paid enough for this…' Rennac thought to himself as he dodged another attack from the gargantuan monster. Colm had managed to make several strikes on the beast, but to no avail.

"If either of you have any bright ideas, I'm listening!" he shouted as he continued his attacks.

"Gwah ha, just keep hitting it till it goes down! That always worked for me in the past!" Dozla answered as he continued attacking his foe.

'Well that certainly wasn't very helpful,' Colm mused as he dodged the beast's attack. 'Hm… till it goes down huh? Not a bad idea actually. Maybe it's time I tried out some of those orbs that that merchant was selling.'

The Rogue reached into his pocket and drew one of the previously named orbs that he "borrowed", and by "borrowed" we mean "stole" from a merchant in Rausten before the group set off for the Darkling Woods.

Running up behind the Cyclops, he stuck the orb onto one of its legs and, after pulling out and igniting a torch, lit the small string attached to the orb.

Slowly, the string started to burn closer to the opening in the top of the orb.

"You two might want to run about now!" the Rogue shouted as he ran past Rennac and Dozla.

Both could only offer and short, "Hm?" before looking at the smoke slowly rising from the backside of one of the legs of the Cyclops.

The Cyclops too seemed to sense that something was wrong, as it looked around for the source of the smoke and eventually let its gaze fall to its right leg.

Seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the chamber.

Most of the members of the group had taken a second to look to where he explosion had come from. Even the Demon King himself had stopped his actions for a second and wondered, 'What the hell was _that?' _

The Cyclops the orb had been attached to now lacked a right leg, and a great deal of its midsection as well. Completely unable to balance itself, it fell over onto its side, howling in unimaginable pain. Moments later it died from unhealable internal and external injuries.

Rennac looked at the creature with wide eyes, then to Colm. "What the hell did you just do?" he asked in utter shock.

Colm pulled another orb out of his pocket and pointed to it. "I decided to give these 'mine' things that some merchant in Rausten was selling a test. I think I might grow to like these things," he added with a large grin.

(A/N: Mines are pretty useless in Fire Emblem, so I decided to put em to use in my story!)

Dozla was speechless for a few seconds. That tiny orb had done what his mighty axe could not. 'Wonder if I could trade this in for a couple of those…' he thought as he looked at his axe.

* * *

Gerik and Seth were preoccupied with their current enemy. This was one stubborn Cyclops. It refused to allow either of its opponents leave its line of sight. The mighty silver knight attacked the front right side of the monster while Gerik took the left. 

Gerik's axe was doing great amounts of _noticeable _damage to the beast, as its blade cut through the creature's skin effortlessly. Seth's lance, the Sacred weapon known as Vidofnir, was also effectively hurting the Cyclops.

Using one of its massive hands, the monster slammed downwards towards Seth. The knight instinctively dropped to his back, so his spine would not be crushed like it would were he in the standing position.

The entire hand covered the area where the knight had been formerly standing.

Gerik watched in horror as the monster knelt down, and continued to pick up and smash its hand down again, and again… and again. "SETH!" he yelled.

The Hero launched himself at the kneeling Cyclops. He sliced a large gash open in the creature's throat, which fell backwards grabbing its neck and screeching in pain.

After landing on the ground from his attack, Gerik ran over to where Seth lay. He looked bad… really bad… but he was, alive?

Seth cough up a bit of blood and grinned at the Hero.

"But, how-?" he managed to ask the knight.

With some help from Gerik, Seth got to his feet and picked up his lance in front of him.

"This weapon has protective enchantments on it. It can shield its wielder from even the most vicious of attacks," he told him hoarsely.

(A/N: All hail the plus 5 defense bonus!)

The Cyclops, determined to take someone down with it, stood back up and charged forward.

Gerik readied himself, but then felt a hand on his shoulder. "There's no need for you to do any more, let me handle this," Seth offered.

Using all the strength he could muster, Seth drew back his lance and hurled it at the oncoming Cyclops. The weapon impaled itself into the monster's eye and into a deep portion of its head.

After swaying back and forth, the creature finally fell forward, slain by the paladin's weapon.

Forde was having the time of his life, taking on a creature of this size. Kyle wasn't exactly, well, as enthusiastic. He'd prefer to be happy _after _this thing was dead.

Both knights had remounted before the Cyclops had attacked them, so they had the element of speed. Maneuvering dangerously around the beast's legs, they took turns attacking it. Not knowing what to do, the Cyclops just stumbled around recklessly, waving its pole-axe about and its free hand as well.

Until it found a suitable target to grab, that is…

Kyle had been unable to avoid the monster's wandering free hand and had been plucked from the ground, horse and all. Now confident that it had found the source of its troubles, the Cyclops threw the contents of its hand forcefully at the ground.

"AH!" Kyle let out a cry of agony, feeling his legs get crushed beneath the body of his horse.

"KYLE!" Forde urged his mount onwards towards the fallen form of his friend.

He jumped off upon reaching his green armor clad ally. He positioned himself in front of his long time friend and put up his weapon.

The Cyclops threw out its fist in an attempt to crush its foe. Forde saw this coming and at the last minute jumped into the air. When the monster's fist hit the ground, Forde landed on it, and ran up its arm to its shoulder.

The creature reacted too slowly and was unable to shake the knight off of it. Forde climbed on top of the beast's head and rammed his lance into its skull with all of his might.

With a violent jerk, the creature managed to get Forde shaken off. The knight landed hard on his back. With its last few moments, the beast raised its pole-axe and stabbed down with its pointed tip. The point went clear through the red clad knight's armor with a sickening crunch, and into the stone floor on the other side of him.

He didn't scream… he just… convulsed painfully, and coughed up a great deal of his blood. His breathing became ragged and his vision was beginning to blur.

The Cyclops fell over after that, and hit the ground, never to move again.

Kyle was in utter shock. His friend had just been stabbed by a massive creature, before his very eyes, and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't get to him with his legs in this condition. His legs be damned, he was going to do something!

Using all the strength in his arms, he dragged himself over to where his friend lay, still pinned to the ground.

There was a smile on his face, but why?

"Forde! Forde! Speak to me! Are you okay!" he knew the answer to that…

"It's… funny. I didn't think it would end like this… but at least I served Renais to the end, just like I promised I would…" he gasped.

Kyle was in distress. He couldn't bear to watch his best friend die before his own eyes. "Forde…"

Forde looked over at his long time compatriot. "Kyle, you're going to make it through this… no doubt about that. You were always the more careful one, thinking things through. I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

Forde's breathing became more ragged. "Take… take care of Franz. Please, be there for him, since I won't be…"

"Damnit Forde, you aren't going to die! You're too stubborn for that!"

"It's been an honor fighting by your side Kyle, I have never known a better knight…" and with that he released his final breath. The light in his eyes faded as his form became completely still and silent.

(A/N: It was hard having to write this part, because I hate having to tear apart best friends like that!)

"You damn stupid idiot… you should have just let it kill me… FORDE!" Kyle could no longer hold back tears as he mourned the loss of his best friend.

* * *

The final group dispatched their Cyclops quite easily, as it had trouble when it tried to get through Gilliam's tough armor. While it was distracted with that, Ross and Garcia did a two pronged attack, Ross chucking his Tomahawk at the creature's eye, blinding it, and Garcia attacked its neck with two hand-axes, which were thrown with incredible accuracy. It's neck was slashed open and it bled to death in a matter of seconds. 

Myrrh was evenly matched with her opponent, however the Draco Zombie did not have as much determination as she did. The carrion beast launched its breath weapon at the oncoming dragon kin. She retaliated to the attack with her own breath weapon.

Upon colliding, the two attacks cancelled one another out.

'I need to find a weak spot…' she thought to herself. 'There must be _some _place that it's vulnerable.'

The Draco Zombie lashed out with its jaw and managed to clamp itself to one of Myrrh's wings.

The transformed manakete let out a cry of pain and made every desperate attempt to get the foul beast to release her. She was losing altitude and fast.

With last minute thinking, and a with a beat from her other massive wing, she managed to guide herself over to the wall of the chamber. Using what strength she had, she rammed the foul zombie that was latched onto her, crushing it between herself and the wall.

It roared in pain and proceeded to let go. However, after being scraped against the wall for so long, one of its wings had been shredded.

It fell to the ground, but landed on its feet. Looking up at the circling dragon, it fired its breath weapon once more.

Myrrh was unable to dodge the attack, taking the blast at its maximum strength. The toxic fumes made her feel sick, and it burned her very senses.

She descended rapidly towards the Draco Zombie, managing to get away from the cloud of noxious fumes that had hit her recently. It saw her coming and attacked with its breath weapon once more. Myrrh fired her own and cancelled out the attack. Then with incredible speed and power, she slammed herself onto the back of the foul dragon.

The Draco Zombie could not stop such an attack and was smashed into the ground. The transformed manakete then, using her great jaws, tore off pieces of the zombie's back. After a sufficient opening had been made, she shoved her mouth into the wound and fired her breath weapon. She repeated the process of using her breath weapon over and over, each time getting a roar of agony out of the Draco Zombie.

After one final breath attack, the Draco Zombie stopped flailing and didn't move again. The inners of its body had been severely thrashed and it could no longer sustain its own life.

Myrrh then transformed back, no longer being able to hold her dragon form for the time, exhausted from her fight.

Vanessa and Syrene were having _some _difficulty with their dragon. It would usually attack with its breath weapon, which Vanessa was able to deflect with ease by using her Wind Sword.

Occasionally the great beast would attempt to bat at the Pegasus Knights with its claws. These attacks were easily evaded.

To hopefully damage the creature, Syrene had hit it several times with javelins, which were now protruding from the carrion beast's body in various places.

The Wind Sword that Vanessa was carrying was their best offensive weapon for the moment as the dragon was severely weak against it.

'Think… how can we take this thing out? It's body is resistant to most our attacks, and I don't have enough magical energy left in this sword to keep up the attacks I'm doing right now…'

Vanessa looked over to Syrene, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.

Syrene watched as the dragon fired another blast of its breath. When it did, it stopped all movement, save its gliding with its wings. Its neck had flared up in size while attacking with its breath. But it could only expand so much…

That was it!

"Vanessa!" she called out to her fellow Peg knight.

The younger Pegasus Knight looked over, acknowledging that she had heard her.

"Throw me your sword!"

The Peg knight looked questioningly at her superior. What was she planning to do?

"Just do it!"

Without another thought on the matter, she pulled her sword back and threw it as hard as she could towards the other Peg knight.

After diving a bit lower, Syrene managed to catch the weapon. She then turned her attention to the dragon, which was still in pursuit of her.

Slightly standing up, she performed a backflip off of her Pegasus, but not before grabbing her lance, which happened to be a dragon lance. With the dragon lance in one hand and the Wind Sword in the other, she performed a twist in the air so that she was facing the oncoming dragon, which opened its jaws in an effort to devour the foolish being in front of it.

Indeed it caught her in its mouth, but this is what she had planned on. Acting immediately she slammed the lance into the roof of its mouth and crouched down. The beast let out a cry of pain and attempted to slam its jaws shut. However, due to the magic enchantments on the lance, it did not break when the dragon tried to clamp its mouth shut. Because of this, the dragon could _not _close its mouth. While holding the lance for support, Syrene moved herself towards the back of the beast's mouth.

Holding the Wind Sword with as firm a grip as she could get, she fired the weapon's magic attack straight down the throat of the dragon.

The force of the wind caused the Draco Zombie's throat to expand greatly, and when it could take the force no longer, several portions of its neck began to blow open, chunks of carrion falling away from it.

It knew it was dying, and had to make someone pay for its demise. With no regards for its own safety, the dragon fired a blast of its breath weapon, blowing its invader out of its mouth and severely injuring them as well. As for the dragon, the force of such a dangerous attack completely destroyed what was left of its neck. Its head fell off the body after which and both parts of the dragon plummeted towards the ground.

Seeing that Syrene was in trouble, Vanessa motioned for her Pegasus to help her superior. Maneuvering carefully under her, she managed to get her Pegasus to catch her fellow Peg knight on its back.

"Wow, that was amazing Syrene! Hey, where's my sword?"

The Peg knight pointed down towards the falling body of the dragon and shrugged.

"Aww… and that was the one that Prince Innes gave me. Oh well."

After receiving a whack on the shoulder, Vanessa brought her Pegasus down to the ground where it landed and both dismounted. Syrene's Pegasus had been waiting for them with them with the support group.

Kyle had already been retrieved by Moulder and Natasha and was currently being healed. His legs were mended, but it was advised that he sit the rest of the fights out. What some of the group members were wondering was, how would they break this news to Franz?

The lad had only ever had one true family member since he joined with Renais' armies, and that was his brother Forde. With him gone, what would he do…?

No one spoke about the subject after that. Their attention turned back to the remaining groups that were still fighting.

* * *

Eirika was disarmed and in need of a solution, as the Cyclops was heading right for her. Knowing that she had few choices, she ran straight towards the one eyed giant. 

Seeing that his sister had been disarmed, Ephraim made a mad dash for Eirika's weapon, in hopes of getting it back to her.

The Cyclops slammed its weapon down where Eirika was, but she avoided the attack by rolling forward and in between the beast's legs.

After retrieving Eirika's weapon, Ephraim made his way toward his sister. She had cleared the monster's weapon just in the nick of time. Tossing the sword back to its rightful owner, he pondered on how to take a being of such size down.

"What do we do?" his sister inquired. "Direct attacks don't seem to be working against this thing."

"Well… if we can't kill it with regular hits, let's look for a weak spot. Its eye seems to be pretty vulnerable."

Eirika put away Sieglinde and pulled out a different sword, one with the look of a broadsword. However, this sword seemed to radiate dark energy, and its blood red pommel gem made the blade look even more fiendish.

She hated having to carry a weapon so foul around, but she figured it might come in handy. And besides, a Runesword was pretty hard to come by.

After nodding to her brother, who seemed to understand what she was going to do, she began sprinting at the Cyclops, who had now reacquired its targets.

Dodging its attack at the last moment, Eirika slipped behind the massive monster and stabbed her blade into the back of its leg.

The blade sank right in, almost phasing through the skin. Once it had gone deep enough, black energy began swirling up the blade, from the wound in the Cyclops, to the hilt of the sword, then to Eirika, who could feel her energy being rejuvenated.

The Cyclops itself had begun to feel a little woozy, falling to one knee and trying to regain its balance. Ephraim had other plans for it.

Running at the beast as fast as he could, he used his sacred twin lance to pole-vault himself into the air, taking the lance with himself as well. After gaining enough height, he thrust his weapon forward, and straight into the eye of the Cyclops, who fell over on the ground, writhing in pain. A moment later it stopped moving, as the Runesword still planted in its backside had finished draining the last of its life force.

Eirika drew the foul weapon out from the corpse of the monster and re-sheathed it. She'd rather not have to use it again, even if it did do a great deal to help.

There were three Cyclopes remaining. Well, there were two that could fight, and one that was for the most part maimed, but still very much alive.

The support group in the center of the room had a job to help the others. The spellcasters, knowing they could inflict more damage quicker than the archers, set off to help Franz, Amelia, and Duessel.

Innes and Neimi went to help Joshua and Marissa, who weren't really in trouble, but weren't doing too much damage either.

Speaking of Joshua and Marissa, the two swordmasters were beginning to tire, and couldn't keep up such a quick pace for long.

Neither of them were going to give in before the other though, because _both _were still in competition with the other.

Joshua looked over to his fighting partner. "Hey Marissa," he started with heavy breathing.

She acknowledged him with a, "Hm?"

"Ya know, if you're getting tired… just take a break. I can handle this."

The swordmistress gritted her teeth. 'I'm not giving up before he does. I will prove his victory over me in our duel was only a fluke!'

"No, I'm fine. Really. _You _can take a break if you want. I'm gonna keep going."

The red haired swordmaster chuckled. "Why did I think you would say anything other than that?"

The two continued on, but eventually the Cyclops became tired of having little cuts and scrapes made on it. It jumped into the air and landed with an enormous "**CRASH**", the force of which sent both swordmaster flying.

Using his sword for support, Joshua stood back up. His leg had been busted up pretty badly from that last attack, and his maneuverability was now pretty minimal. Marissa was on the ground beside him and in pain. Her ankle had been twisted and she wasn't going anywhere.

"Joshua get out of here!" she shouted, trying to keep him from doing something stupid.

He pulled his lucky coin from his pocket and looked at both sides. "Depends on the flip," he answered casually.

Was he serious? He was going to leave their lives in the hands of a coin flip?

Using his thumb, he flipped the coin up into the air. Even the oncoming Cyclops seemed to be watching the coin.

It landed in the palm of the swordmaster's hand. He looked from the coin back to Marissa, who was dying of anticipation. What did it end up being?

With a grin Joshua gave her a thumbs up from over his shoulder. "Luck's on your side this time. I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you."

'That moron… what is he thinking?' she wondered.

The flip had actually been a losing one. Joshua just used the coin flip as an excuse to stay and defend the downed swordmistress.

Joshua took up a fighter's stance, putting his sword forward and off to the right side. It looked as though he was preparing to charge.

(A/N: Think of how Saitou from Rouroni Kenshin holds his sword when he does his special attack.)

Before the Cyclops could reach him, a series of arrows rained onto the beast. Being so large, it was an easy target for the sniping team of Innes and Neimi. Several arrows had struck the creature in its eye, making it howl continuously in pain.

Joshua turned to face the archers, and signaled his thanks before turning his attention back to the Cyclops, which had just fallen onto its back clutching at its wounded eye.

With what effort he could manage, Joshua sprinted to the Cyclops and hopped onto its stomach. He quickly made his way to the monster's neck, where he thrust his sword downward with all his strength, and then leapt off to the side, being sure to keep his sword in the beast's neck as he traveled down. A long gash was created, slicing the creature's neck open, where blood poured forth in great flows. It stopped moving a moment later, confirming that it had become deceased.

* * *

'Faster… faster… I have to reach her.' Cormag dove his wyvern straight down in an attempt to catch the rapidly descending princess of Frelia. 

The Draco Zombie noticed this and fired its breath weapon down after them. 'Shit… that isn't going to help any,' he thought as he could feel the attack getting closer. He was almost to Tana, just a little bit more…

With one last ditch effort, Cormag managed to get his wyvern to swoop underneath the princess so she landed in his arms.

Her Light Brand was still with her, so he figured it was time to put it to use. Unclipping the sword from her belt, he strapped it to his own, then pulled up his silver lance.

"Keep her safe and take her to the others!" Cormag shouted to his wyvern.

It growled in acknowledgement of its master's orders. After securing Tana to his wyvern, Cormag jumped off. The pursuing breath weapon from the dragon slammed into him as he jumped into the air.

He felt dizzy, and sick to his stomach. The very air around him hurt to breath, and his skin felt as though it was on fire. He had to stay focused though.

The Draco Zombie flew past him, still intent on following the wyvern. He was falling directly behind the carrion dragon, and so he extended his lance.

Right as the beast evened out its flight path, Cormag slammed into its back, thrusting his lance into the rotted hide of the zombie. Using this for support, he steadied himself and pulled out the Light Brand he had taken from Tana.

The dragon had noticed this and was determined to keep its foe from taking advantage of its unprotected back. It spun itself over several times, hoping to shake off the Wyvern Lord, but to no avail. Cormag held onto his lodged lance tightly.

He made his way to one of the dragon's wings, and using the Light Brand, whose blade now glowed with white energy, attacked at the section that connected the wing to the body. The dragon roared in agony at the feeling of the white hot light magic burning through its wing.

Its unholy hide was no match for such pure magic. The wing eventually gave way and was fully cut off from the body. The beast could not maintain altitude with only one wing and began to fall. Cormag grabbed hold of the lance still in the dragon's back. This was going to be a rough landing…

The beast crashed into the ground and began to tumble forward. Other pieces of its body were torn off in the process. When it stopped moving, Cormag wearily stood up on the carcass of the undead dragon.

Taking the Light Brand, he walked up to the head of the beast and stabbed it several times, just for good measure. Then after dislodging the lance in what was left of the body, he headed back to the rest of the group.

'I'm not going to let you die Franz!' Amelia kept telling herself this over and over as she ran as quickly as she could towards the fallen knight.

Seeing no other options, she pointed her Light Brand directly at the monster's eye and fired a blast of light magic. It hit dead in the center of the eye, blinding the creature, which growled in pain. It grabbed its eye with both hands and began to stumble about. The monster didn't have much of an opportunity for anything else though, as seconds later a bombardment of different magical energies rained down on the creature, courtesy of the spellcasters of the support group.Its body didn't move again.

Duessel let out a sigh of relief as he approached Amelia, who was now over top of Franz, trying to shake him awake.

"That was some quick thinking Amelia. Excellent work, you saved his life."

The young girl looked up at her mentor, tears in her eyes. "I thought he was going to die… I had to do something."

"But you still used your head. You didn't let your emotions control your actions. If you had, he wouldn't be alive right now," Duessel answered, pointing to Franz.

Dismounting his horse, Duessel knelt down and picked up Franz. He set the lad on his horse and then helped Amelia up. After both persons were on, he led his horse back to the other members of the group.

Franz and Tana had come to a few minutes later, and were receiving treatment for their injuries. Well, Tana was currently hanging onto Cormag, thanking him for what he had done to save her, _and _kill the dragon.

The group members were all gathered around, talking about their fights. The conversation eventually switched to Kyle and his fight.

"So how badly did you and my brother kill that monster?" Franz asked the green armor clad knight.

Kyle turned his gaze away from the young boy, unable to mention anything that happened in the fight.

"And hey, where _is _Forde? It's not like him to keep us waiting."

Ephraim turned to face Kyle. "Yes, I was wondering that as well. Where has he gotten off to?"

"…" He couldn't do it. How could he tell them?

Ephraim's face turned serious. "Kyle, _where is he?" _

"…He's… dead sir…" he responded, with a downcast look.

"What? How?"

"To save my life Lord Ephraim… I take full responsibility for his loss."

"My brother's… dead? No! You're lying!" Franz didn't want to accept that something could have killed his brother.

Kyle explained what happened to the group, every detail of it, down to his last moments.

It was too much for Franz to bear. He began sobbing uncontrollably, still in disbelief.

Duessel stepped behinds the young knight and put a calming hand on his shoulder. "He died to save the life of another Franz. His death was a noble one. You should be proud of what your brother has done."

Franz hugged the great knight tightly and continued sobbing.

"It's okay, just let it out. Your loss is a great one. You shouldn't have to bear it, not at such a young age." Duessel's words were true, all of them.

Ephraim clenched his fists until his knuckles began turning white. "We will not let this stand! The demon king has killed many innocents and now he has taken one of our own! We must put an end to his treachery and end this before anyone else gets hurt!"

The group let out a cheer, which let him know that they were still in support of him.

Eirika knelt down in front of Franz and turned him around so he was facing her.

"We won't forget what your brother did Franz. After this is all over, we'll see to it that he gets a proper funeral and burial. He will have the honors that he deserves, alright?"

The teary boy looked at the princess and nodded, calmed by her words. It _was _the least that they could do for Forde.

"But for now," Eirika continued as she stood up, "We must deal with the Demon King. Nothing good can come if he is not banished from this realm."

The group started their final walk up the last flight of steps leading to the awaiting Demon King…

End Chapter.

* * *

Draknal: And so ends chapter two. We have now seen things on the twins' end. Next chapter, things will get a wee bit hairy. 

Guy: -still holding sword- Well we're going to be here to make sure you stay on track.

Draknal: -gulp- We?

Karla and Raven: -both nod-

Draknal: Great… oh, please R&R people! The more reviews I have, the happier I'll be, and the more I'll want to work on this fic! Give it time folks, this story will develop nicely.

Karla: So R&R for the poor guy, will ya?

Draknal: Laters!


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